Joel Klatt on Maalik Murphy leaving Texas: 'His hands were tied'

Not all moves in the transfer portal are decisions that players want to make as much as ones they have to. That’s the scenario that QB Maalik Murphy finds himself in and, because of that, Joel Klatt feels bad for his circumstances.

Klatt dove into Murphy’s decision to leave Texas and enter the portal on his show this week. For one, the Longhorns’ quarterback room remained crowded unlike the original plan for the position in Austin. For two, the schedule only gives a player like Murphy so long to find a new, desirable home for himself. Put all that together and Klatt sees it as quite the mess that Murphy, unfortunately, finds himself in.

“Remember, it is a bit of a game of musical chairs. It is. There’s only a certain number of really quality locations where you would want to go as a quarterback,” said Klatt. “Because of the limited window and how the window works? There’s also, by the way, a dead period coming up over the holidays where he can’t go and visit. So, it’s like his hands were tied in so many ways because of this ridiculous blunder that we put ourselves in in college football.”

“Here’s a talented guy, sees the handwriting on the wall with Arch Manning behind him, Quinn Ewers – probably, maybe, a good chance of – staying in Texas after this year,” Klatt explained. “So Maalik Murphy is thinking to himself, ‘Well, I mean? I want to stay and yet I’m going to have to go and find my spot.'”

Murphy, who just finished his second season on The 40 Acres, entered the portal last week. That means, as yet another negative of this matter, he won’t be with the Longhorns for the College Football Playoff.

Murphy saw his first game action this fall after an injury to Ewers sidelined him for a few games. In total, he went 40-71 (56.3%) for 477 yards, three touchdowns, and three interceptions. Most of that came in his two starts against BYU and Kansas State where he helped Texas win both.

It’s pretty safe to say that no one wanted this to end this way for Murphy or Texas. At the very least, many would have liked to see him battle with Manning for the starting job. That was before Ewers’ unforeseen, planned return threw even more of a wrench in it.

Still, with the schedule set up as it presently is, casualties like this are more likely which, for Klatt, is very distasteful considering it may not necessarily be what he truly wants to do as much as he may need to do it.

“It’s not his fault,” said Klatt. “Again, Like I said and I will continue to say, his hand is being forced by what is a totally broken calendar.”